The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto

This open access book presents the collectively authored Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto and accompanying materials.

The Manifesto can be signed by visiting http://bit.ly/signPSManifesto

The Internet and the media landscape are broken. The dominant commercial Internet platforms endanger democracy. They have created a communications landscape overwhelmed by surveillance, advertising, fake news, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and algorithmic politics. Commercial Internet platforms have harmed citizens, users, everyday life, and society. Democracy and digital democracy require Public Service Media. A democracy-enhancing Internet requires Public Service Media becoming Public Service Internet platforms – an Internet of the public, by the public, and for the public; an Internet that advances instead of threatens democracy and the public sphere. The Public Service Internet is based on Internet platforms operated by a variety of Public Service Media, taking the public service remit into the digital age. The Public Service Internet provides opportunities for public debate, participation, and the advancement of social cohesion.

Accompanying the Manifesto are materials that informed its creation: Christian Fuchs’ report of the results of the Public Service Media/Internet Survey, the written version of Graham Murdock’s online talk on public service media today, and a summary of an ecomitee.com discussion of the Manifesto’s foundations.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
Christian Fuchs and Klaus Unterberger

Chapter 2: The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto

Chapter 3: The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Utopias Survey Report
Christian Fuchs

Chapter 4: Public Service Media for Critical Times: Connectivity, Climate, and Corona
Graham Murdock

Chapter 5: The Future of Public Service Media and the Internet
Alessandro D’Arma, Christian Fuchs, Minna Horowitz and Klaus Unterberger